---
title: It was a slate, in such distress because of a false number in the su… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a slate, in such distress because of a false number in the sum, that it had almost broken itself to pieces. Who acts: drawer. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, sentence 19

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It was a slate, in such distress because of a false number in the sum, that it had almost broken itself to pieces.

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**Who acts:** drawer · **What happens:** be, break · **To what, where:** slate, drawer

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drawer), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:134:19
# text = It was a slate, in such distress because of a false number in the sum, that it had almost broken itself to pieces.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	slate	slate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
9	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	13	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sum	sum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
23	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | drawer | a slate |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | past · perfect · passive |  | drawer |  |  |  | to pieces; almost *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient itself=Result |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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